4 ms·
Voting for a prosecutor or judge is tough to do, speaking from experience. I tend to rely on outside authorities for this sort of thing - namely, the local pape
by Brendinooo 10y ago
Voting for a prosecutor or judge is tough to do, speaking from experience. I tend to rely on outside authorities for this sort of thing - namely, the local papers' endorsements.
The lack of data mentioned in the article is a big deal.
Another thing that's probably underrated in a lot of districts is the lack of competition. Where I live, if you're not a Democrat, you don't really get a relevant primary vote for people on the municipal or county level. The article notes that "85 percent ran unopposed in general elections", but many of those might have had a much tougher primary fight, which excludes the other party and independents.
- ravenstine 10y agoVoting for judges is also in conflict with the notion that they are supposed to be impartial. Maybe we should change the system so that judges aren't elected by the public, but they can be ousted by the public.
- Brendinooo 10y agoI don't know if it's possible to avoid impartiality these days, if it was ever possible. The Merrick Garland nomination speaks to this. Recall votes would be just as motivated by politics; they'd just be more favorable to incumbents.
- whamlastxmas 10y ago>namely, the local papers' endorsements By which it is meant, the recommendation of whatever mega-millionaire owns the paper.
- Brendinooo 10y agoIf I had better, more unbiased ways to get information, I'd happily take them. At least endorsements are in the editorial section, so you know what you're getting. Pittsburgh has a right-leaning paper and a left-leaning paper, so if they both endorse the same candidate that's pretty telling to me.
- whamlastxmas 10y agoI search online for literally every name on the ballot. I take notes and base my decision off what they write about themselves. I would say 80% of candidates have a website. Sometimes there are local-level debates you can watch on Youtube between candidates. Sometimes there will be news stories about a candidate, either good or bad. The bad ones help weed our the crappy ones, but I take them with a grain of salt.
- mcv 10y agoWhy are these even elected positions in the first place? The US is the only country I'm aware of that has elections for judges and prosecutors.